Dean Smith announced his retirement just two months before the 1997-98 season and, not surprisingly, UNC didn’t have much choice other than to hire his lead and longtime assistant, Bill Guthridge.
He did leave him a pretty good roster, starting with Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Ed Cota, Brendan Haywood, Shammond Williams, Orlando Melendez, who is still playing with the Harlem Globetrotters incidentally, the unlikeable Ademola Okulaja and the loathsome Makhtar Ndiaye.
In Guthridge’s first visit to Cameron as head coach, UNC was superb for the first 3⁄4 or so of the game, building a 17 point lead.